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In Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, researchers found that the wasp Dasyproctus agilis was nesting inside hollow stems of Macaranga ant-plants—stems that normally shelter ants. Wasp occupation was more frequent in the study’s oil-palm plantation sample than in its heavily logged forest sample. The researchers also found an association between more wasps and smaller ant colonies, but they did not show that wasps caused ants to disappear or weakened the plants’ protection from herbivores.
Why do wasps live inside trees that house ants?
Some tropical Macaranga trees have hollow stems that provide nesting space for Crematogaster ants. The plants also produce food bodies for the ants. In return, the ants defend their host plants against leaf-eating insects, making the relationship a mutualism: each partner provides something the other benefits from.
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The wasp Dasyproctus agilis uses those same cavities as brood chambers. Adult wasps hunt and paralyse flies, then store them in the plant stems as food for their larvae. The wasp is therefore using a structure that forms part of the ant–plant partnership, though the study does not establish that it has displaced the ants.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe field study by Dan Lestina and colleagues was published in PeerJ on April 15, 2026. The team sampled Macaranga pearsonii in Sabah between January 2017 and December 2018. Read the study in PeerJ via PubMed Central.
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Where were wasps found most often?
Across a survey of 213 M. pearsonii trees, the researchers reported this habitat comparison:
| Sampled habitat | Trees with wasps |
|---|---|
| Oil-palm plantations | 12 of 43 |
| Heavily logged forest | 1 of 41 |
The difference was statistically significant in the study (Fisher exact test, p = 0.002). It describes these sampled sites; it is not a universal estimate for every plantation or logged forest. The comparison also does not include undisturbed primary forest, so it cannot show how the result would differ there. Nor does it prove that land use caused wasps to occupy more plants.
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Are wasps pushing ants out?
Not conclusively. In a separate analysis using a plant-based sample of 125 trees from oil-palm plantations, the researchers found that plants with more wasps tended to have smaller ant colonies. That is an association, not proof of displacement: the study could not determine whether wasps reduce ant colonies, whether larger ant colonies make it harder for wasps to settle, or whether another factor affects both.
The distinction matters because “taking over” can imply a demonstrated eviction. The evidence shows wasps using ant-plant cavities and an association with colony size, but it does not establish that wasps drove ants out.
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Have the plants lost their ant protection?
The researchers found no significant evidence that wasp occupation reduced the ants’ protection of plants from herbivores. The study therefore does not show that these plants became less healthy or that forest recovery slowed because of the wasps.
Researchers have raised longer-term possibilities, including whether changing value of the cavities could eventually affect how much plants invest in them. Those are hypotheses about potential consequences, not outcomes measured in this field study. Whether D. agilis is native or introduced is also not established in the university’s account of the work. Queen Mary University of London’s study announcement describes the ant–plant partnership as having persisted for at least 10 million years; that figure is the release’s framing, not a duration measured by this wasp study.
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